Consumers and law makers continue pushing for improvements in vehicle safety, fuel economy, and pollution control. In response, manufacturers continue developing and integrating systems, such as anti-lock braking systems (ABS), electronic stability control (ESC), vehicle stability control (VSC), active steering, active suspension control, and tire pressure monitoring (TPM), into their vehicles. To more fully achieve the benefits of these systems, information is needed about the interaction between the tires and the road or driving surface.
Typically, a tire includes an inner liner that lines the inside of the tire, multiple ply layers over the inner liner, and one or more steel belts over the ply layers. A cushion layer and a base layer are situated over the steel belts and a cap layer, also referred to as the tread layer, is situated on the outside of the tire over the base layer. The tread interacts with the road surface to provide traction.
Some tire monitoring systems have been attached to the inner liner of the tire, which avoids integrating sensing elements directly into the harsh mechanical and chemical environment experienced by the tread. These tire monitoring systems obtain information about global deformations of the tire, such as tire pressure. However, they do not obtain information about local deformations in the tread and the interaction between the tread and the driving surface.
For these and other reasons there is a need for the present invention.